The newly-regenerated Doctor is exiled to modern-day Earth by the Time
Lords, where he becomes attached to the British branch of UNIT as their
scientific adviser, ostensibly taking orders from Brigadier
Lethbridge-Stewart. Aided by Liz Shaw, the Doctor's first task is to
investigate a shower of mysterious meteorites which landed in the
countryside. The Time Lord discovers that these are no ordinary
meteorites: in fact, the plastic-controlling Nestenes have landed,
intending to use their automated servants, the Autons, to take over the
Earth.

Production

More than a year before it was to begin transmission, it was clear that
Doctor Who's seventh season was to be very different from its six
predecessors. In the wake of the success of The Web
Of Fear and The Invasion -- both
stories set on modern-day Earth and including a significant military
presence -- outgoing producer Peter Bryant and his successor, Derrick
Sherwin, felt that Doctor Who should be reformatted to emphasise
this sort of adventure. With Patrick Troughton electing not to return to
the show for Season Seven and Nicholas Courtney (who had played Brigadier
Lethbridge-Stewart in both serials) confirming his interest in assuming a
regular role in Doctor Who, Bryant and Sherwin set about defining
the programme's new status quo from about December 1968.

In the early months of 1969, the basic elements of Doctor Who's
revised format fell into place. The Doctor would be exiled to Earth in the
modern-day or the very near future. There, he would come to work with
Lethbridge-Stewart and the UNIT organisation which had been introduced in
The Invasion. Since the Doctor's two previous
companions, Jamie and Zoe, would also be written out at the end of Season
Six, a new assistant -- a scientist named Liz -- was created by Sherwin,
with input from script editor Terrance Dicks. It was thought that Liz
would be more intelligent and mature than most previous Doctor Who
companions. The Third Doctor himself was cast on May 21st when Jon
Pertwee agreed to the role; Courtney was contracted on the 27th. Both
actors were booked to appear in at least twenty-one episodes.

Season Seven would see Doctor
Who broadcast in colour for the first time

The changes to Doctor Who would not be limited to matters of cast
or storyline, however. BBC1 was scheduled to begin transmitting in colour
from November, and so it was decided that Season Seven would see Doctor
Who broadcast in colour for the first time. The number of episodes
comprising the new season would also be sharply reduced, as it was planned
that Doctor Who would now run for only six months instead of nine.
One of Troughton's major complaints about his tenure on the programme had
been the exhausting production schedule, and it was felt that the reduced
episode count would ameliorate the situation. Because of all this, Season
Seven's debut was scheduled around New Year 1970 rather than at the start
of autumn 1969.

Meanwhile, on February 12th, Dicks commissioned a storyline entitled
“Facsimile” from Robert Holmes, who had recently written The Space Pirates for Season Six.
“Facsimile” was intended to serve as Serial AAA, the first
adventure of the revamped Doctor Who. Since it was hoped that the
Earthbound setting would allow the introduction of more relevant, timely
dangers into the series, Holmes drew inspiration from concerns about the
still-new technology of plastics. Full scripts were subsequently
commissioned from the writer on June 3rd.

During this time, Pertwee's take on the Doctor was gradually being
developed, with the actor receiving considerable feedback from his old
friend, Shaun Sutton, who was then serving as the BBC's Head of Drama.
Although Bryant had assumed that Pertwee would portray the role in a
rather comedic vein, Pertwee instead opted to assume a more serious
aspect; Sutton advised the actor to basically play the Doctor as himself.
For his costume, Pertwee suggested a high-collared black outfit in the
style of Pandit Nehru. However, costume designer Christine Rawlins liked
the way Pertwee had dressed at his introductory press call on June 7th,
when he had worn a velvet smoking jacket, a frilly shirt and his
grandfather's Inverness cape; she decided to use this as the basis for the
Doctor's new look.

Casting for the role of Liz occurred during July. Photos of actress
Caroline John were forwarded to Bryant and Sherwin by another BBC
producer, James Cellan-Jones, and John was subsequently contracted for two
serials on July 28th. The actress' experience to date was largely confined
to the stage, though she had a handful of film and television credits to
her name, including an episode of The Power Game. John was revealed
to the press on September 10th. She was initially very keen to read up on
the scientific terminology she'd be spouting in Doctor Who, and was
subsequently dismayed to discover that most of it was made-up
gibberish.

On September 10th, Caroline John was revealed to the press
as new companion Liz Shaw

Holmes' storyline, meanwhile, had undergone a number of changes. In
episode one, the Doctor was originally kidnapped from his bed and taken to
a storeroom for interrogation; he escaped through a window after feigning
unconsciousness. The Autons were defeated in the end by a high-frequency
sound Liz arranged to have transmitted from Broadcasting House at the
Doctor's request. For a time, Sam Seeley was accompanied by a son. Liz's
surname was revised from “Shore” to “Shaw”, while
Captain Munro's last name was originally spelt “Monro”.

With the change of Doctor and the move to colour, it was decided that a
new title sequence was needed for Doctor Who. Bernard Lodge was
once again pressed into service. His original plan was to generate
interesting-looking feedback patterns -- as he had done for his two
earlier efforts -- but he found the colour results disappointing compared
to what he had achieved in monochrome. With Ben Palmer, Lodge instead
decided to film shifting diamond patterns in black-and-white, then tint
them with colour gels using an optical printer. Pertwee's countenance and
a new Doctor Who logo were then added to the mix. One aspect which
was abandoned was the idea of beginning the sequence with Pertwee throwing
his cape over the screen, with the colour patterns then emerging from the
darkness. The title sequence was filmed on August 3rd at Television Centre
Studio 5. For the first time, an end credit sequence was also created --
to date, Doctor Who's closing credits had usually run over a simple
black background.

The director assigned to “Facsimile” was Derek Martinus, who
had last worked on The Ice Warriors two years
earlier. Martinus had been trying to distance himself from Doctor
Who, and agreed to the assignment with considerable reluctance. His
work began with a week of filming starting on September 13th; around this
time, the serial's title was amended to Spearhead From Space. The
first day of filming began at the Favourite Doll Factory in Holloway,
London which stood in for the Auto Plastics Factory. Liz's arrival at UNIT
headquarters was then filmed around St Pancras Station. Geoff Brighty was
cast as the UNIT commissionaire in this sequence, but upon recording he
was found to be unsuitable for the part. Sherwin himself stepped in to
play the role.

September 14th was taken up with action on the Broadway in Ealing. On the
15th and 16th, land owned by the Royal Horticultural Society in Wisley,
Surrey served as the woods while nearby Hatchford Park School was used as
the hospital grounds on the 17th. Finally, more factory scenes were filmed
at TCC Condensers in Ealing on the 18th and 19th. It seems that Martinus
intended to film the Doctor and Liz arriving at Madame Tussaud's in
London, but these plans were abandoned at some point.

With industrial action threatening the studio recording,
Derrick Sherwin convinced his bosses to complete the story on film

Studio recording was then supposed to occur on Monday, October 13th for
episode one, followed by three consecutive Thursdays -- October 23rd and
30th and November 6th -- for the remaining installments. However, while
cast and crew were carrying out the location filming, the Association of
Broadcast Staff began industrial action in the wake of a salary dispute
with BBC management. With recording dates for all programmes at Television
Centre threatened, Sherwin was aware that Spearhead From Space
might have to be abandoned altogether. To avoid the loss of his season
premiere, Sherwin convinced his bosses to allow him to complete the serial
entirely on film.

Work resumed on October 8th; the filming dates largely coincided with the
original schedule for rehearsal and studio recording. One casualty of the
changed plans was that the original voice of Dr Lomax, Henry McCarthy (who
also played Dr Beavis), was replaced by Ellis Jones (also cast as the UNIT
technician). The majority of the filming took place at the BBC's
Engineering Training Centre at Wood Norton, near Evesham, Hereford and
Worcester. Wheelbarrow Castle Cottage in nearby Radford was used for
Seeley's home, while the Mansion House Hotel in Evesham served as
Scobie's residence. After a break on November 1st and 2nd, the material in
the Army tent was filmed at Van Arden Studios in Ealing on the 3rd and
4th. Finally, Madame Tussaud's itself was visited on November 5th. Model
shots were completed at the Ealing Television Film Studios on November
19th, and Martinus remounted the Doctor's climactic confrontation with the
Nestene creature at Ealing on the 22nd, as he was unsatisfied with the
original effort.

In the midst of filming, Doctor Who's production office got a major
shake-up when the BBC decided to shift both Bryant and Sherwin over to a
troubled German coproduction, the thriller series Paul Temple.
Sutton first asked Douglas Camfield (whose most recent Doctor Who
directorial assignment was The Invasion) to
take over as producer. When he declined, Sutton instead approached Barry
Letts, who had helmed The Enemy Of The World
during Season Five. At that time, Letts had voiced a number of ideas on
how Doctor Who should be made, some of which Bryant and Sherwin had
since implemented. Letts' appointment came on October 20th.

The BBC decided to shift both Peter Bryant and Derrick
Sherwin from Doctor Who to a troubled German
coproduction

Spearhead From Space was consequently the last Doctor Who
story on which Sherwin received a credit. After finishing up on Paul
Temple, Sherwin left the BBC to form an independent production company
called SkiBoy. In the Eighties, he headed up the computer animation firm
Electronic Arts for a time; he subsequently continued to both write and
produce.

True to his word, Spearhead From Space also brought Derek Martinus'
involvement with Doctor Who to an end. Martinus left the BBC to go
freelance in the mid-Seventies, during which time he directed episodes of
series such as Blake's 7 and Into The Labyrinth. Later in
life, Martinus concentrated his efforts on stage productions; he passed
away in March 2014.

Despite all the behind-the-scenes changes, the new-look Doctor Who
debuted on January 3rd, 1970. Despite the fact that the audience was
roughly twice that of the final Troughton serial, The
War Games, it remained to be seen whether audiences would accept
an Earthbound, action-oriented colour version of the series which had
already been running for more than half a decade.

Sources

Doctor Who: The Handbook: The Third Doctor by David J Howe and
Stephen James Walker (1996), Virgin Publishing, ISBN 0 426 20486 7.